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<\/p>\nIt\u2019s Fat Bear Week in Alaska and, for the first time, the bracket includes whole bear families.<\/p>\n
Rangers at Katmai National Park and Preserve said they included entire hefty households to celebrate mother bears who must work extra hard to fatten not only themselves but also their cubs. The park also said a record number of bear families feasted on salmon at Brooks River this summer.<\/p>\n
Fat Bear Week fans like Rebecca Mahan said they support the new additions. <\/p>\n
\u201cMoms obviously never get enough credit, so it’s kind of fun to see them getting more credit in the bear world,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
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Bear Family 132 features a mother bear and her three spring cubs. She has become one of the most experienced bears on the river.<\/p>\n
Mahan is following Fat Bear Week all the way from Ireland. Each year, the bracket-style competition draws fans from all over the world who vote for their favorite beefy brown bear. Last year, more than 1.5 million people weighed in from more than 100 countries.<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s winner will be crowned next Tuesday. The chubby competitors are 11 solo adults, including defending champ<\/a> Chunk, and five bear families that each compete as a team. <\/p>\n Park ranger Sarah Bruce said the families’ cubs are really cute and extremely fun to watch.<\/p>\n \u201cThe spring cubs are always my favorite bears,\u201d Bruce said.<\/p>\n (Catch the cubs on the park\u2019s livestreams<\/a>.)<\/p>\n Meet some mamas<\/p>\n All of the bear families are known by a number \u2014 132, 284, 610, 806, 901.<\/p>\n Bear 806 with her adopted cub and biological cub.<\/p>\n While all bears overcome challenges to get fat, Bruce said, Bear 806 and her cubs have an especially notable story.<\/p>\n \u201cShe adopted a 2-and-a-half-year-old cub,\u201d Bruce said.<\/p>\n It\u2019s rare for a bear to adopt cubs, according<\/a> to the park. Bear 806 also has a cub who she birthed this spring.<\/p>\n \u201cThe blended family shows 806\u2019s behavioral flexibility and willingness to extend her devotion beyond her biological cub,\u201d the bear’s bio says.<\/p>\n As far as size, the blended bear family\u2019s cubs aren\u2019t little by any means. Cubs can weigh<\/a> up to 200 pounds by the end of their second season. The adopted cub, nicknamed Biggie, looks like a fluffball. But his mom’s personality isn\u2019t necessarily warm and fuzzy. Bear 806 killed and partly ate<\/a> the offspring of another Fat Bear contestant, Bear 909, in July.<\/p>\n One of Bear 901’s cubs disappeared from Katmai National Park over the summer, park officials say. Her surviving cub is a chunky one.<\/p>\n Tiffany Weeks in Minnesota is rooting for another family: Number 132 and her three spring cubs<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cIt’s hard to get fat when you’re taking care of other people,\u201d Weeks said of mother bears. \u201c132 has to split all of the fish that she catches with her triplets, and she has to nurse triplets in the prime of summer.\u201d <\/p>\n The triplets are small, round and pudgy.<\/p>\n \u201cThose cubs are fat little meatballs,\u201d Weeks said.<\/p>\n Other adult competitors are mothers, but their cubs have grown up. Bear 910 adopted her sister\u2019s cub and raised it alongside her own. She now lives alone \u201cand has used the opportunity to fish where and when she wants,\u201d the park says. <\/p>\n Mahan, the fan in Ireland, nicknamed her \u201cAuntie Bear\u201d and is cheering her on.<\/p>\n \u201cIt started because she looked really rotund,\u201d Mahan said. \u201cShe\u2019s an aunt and I love being an auntie. I am out fly fishing, and then I worked with adopted kiddos, so it was kind of a great parallel.\u201d<\/p>\n Other heavyset hopefuls<\/p>\n Bear 910 isn’t the only one with a devoted fan base. The Katmai bears have become celebrities over the years, so much so that they broke the internet Tuesday, when voting opened. The contest saw the biggest first day turnout in history, according to the park<\/a>, leading some to experience technical delays.<\/p>\n \u201cApparently the internet was not prepared to handle this much fat bear,\u201d the park said on Facebook<\/a>.<\/p>\n Weeks, from Minnesota, was thrilled to hear about the turnout.<\/p>\n \u201cIt just means more people are discovering this and it is, at the end of the day, a fundraiser for Katmai Conservancy, which supports the national park,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1790231416_473_.jpeg\"\/)
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